DEFUNE - “the longest-running in London” . | MARYLEBONE
With a history of over 35 years, Defune is the longest-running Japanese restaurant in London and has quite a bit of a reputation to uphold... It offers both à la carte and teppanyaki dining experiences split over two floors and also offers a lighter lunch menu. I went for a late weekend Sunday lunch but instead decided to try out their Wagyu Beef Chef Special off the dinner menu, consisting of 8 courses:
1. Trio of Starters
2. Teapot Soup
3. King Crab Avocado Salad
4. Assorted Sashimi
5. Foie Gras Sauté
6. Champagne Sorbet (Yuzu Sorbet)
7. Wagyu Beef Teppanyaki
8. Dessert
At £95, the “dining experience” doesn’t exactly come cheap but both taste and presentation were great and the service attentive. Especially as it’s marketed as an “experience”, it would have been nice if they had shared a bit of knowledge on each dish or even just stated what each dish was as it was served but otherwise, no complaints.
You may know of the Japanese custom of eating sushi in a particular order, building up from the simple purer tastes to those more sophisticated. Here, they’ve similarly planned the menu, so that you’re able to get the most out of the flavour combinations with each course. Beginning with the assortment of starters, you jump right into the deep end, with big flavours in the fried fishcake, tamago-egg wrapped eel and appetising pickle salad. Each portion is teasingly bite-sized, so it’s not too much for the palate and of course, you’re left wanting more.
Next is the Teapot Soup: a Japanese classic broth of seafood and vegetables. The sweetness of the seafood is prominent, yet the overall taste is clean and simple, refreshing the palate and lifting the richness of the starters. I really liked the presentation of this course and it was great fun poking about in the dainty pot to see what’s inside (assorted mushrooms, shrimp, coriander, celery and tofu).
Of the 8 courses, the King Crab Avocado Salad with Salmon Roe seemed most alike a ‘commercial’ Japanese dish but it was delicious and presentation beautiful, nonetheless. The avocado was perfectly ripe and the crab wasn’t bulked with mayonnaise - what I find to be a frustratingly common practice in cold crab dishes. Mayonnaise did accompany the dish, but swirled with wasabi, adding an exciting kick. Instead of going for mind-blowing, it’s evident that Defune went for firm-rooted classic with this course.
Again, sashimi is a Japanese staple, so there’s not too much to be said about this course. Portion size was good, it was fresh and the wasabi was good quality.
The showstopper of this Set Menu is really supposed to be the Wagyu... but the Foie Gras Sauté was hands-down, my absolute favourite. The sauce was a delicious mix of meaty flavours with a sweet undertone and the foie gras was fresh, flavoursome and extremely melt-in-your-mouth. It may not look like a huge portion in the photo but boy, was this an indulgent course... not that I was complaining!
The sixth course was supposed to be a Champagne Sorbet but what actually came was a Yuzu Sorbet. This wasn’t communicated to us, which I did think was a bit cheeky but it worked well with the rest of the menu. Yuzu is a citrus fruit commonly used in Japanese cooking, with a flavour similar to grapefruit. The sorbet was smooth, tangy and not too sweet, though it was quite milky/creamy for a sorbet - almost like ice cream. It did the job though - prepping the palate for the main event: Wagyu!
By this point, I’d already eaten way more than I would for an average lunch and I was starting to get full. I requested for the Wagyu to be cooked to about 75% but it came almost well-done, which was slightly disappointing. You know what they say about cooking steak well-done being slaughter of good beef... well surprisingly, I think the fatty composition of Wagyu just managed to clinch it from being so. Whilst a well-done sirloin may get tough and dry, the more I chewed the Wagyu, the more succulent it got, as the juices and fats melted down and you can see the moist glisten in the photo. Honestly speaking, I do think it would have tasted a lot better at 65-75% but for an almost cooked-through bit of beef, it was pretty damn good. It was served with condiments: a plum sauce, strong mustard and soy but generally I like to enjoy quality beef on its own to truly taste the natural flavours.
You know I have a thing for Matcha, so naturally I picked the Matcha ice cream. Clean, smooth and rich, it was the perfect dessert to round off 8 courses. The banana crepe was a heavier choice, though equally as delicious; the pancakes were freshly made, soft and clearly rich in egg. As for the fresh fruit platter, I don’t know whether the strawberries were a Japanese import as I know that they take their fresh produce very seriously in Japan and they try to grow their fruit and veg at the most optimal conditions for maximum flavour, sweetness and texture etc... but my god, the strawberries were sweet; not a sickly sweet but a refreshing burst of strawberry kind of sweet. The flavour of strawberry itself was intense and the only way I can think to describe it properly is that they were the most strawberry-tasting strawberries I’d ever tasted.
Despite the few niggles here and there, it was a brilliant Sunday lunch and I’d definitely recommend for both those who either love Japanese food or have never tried but always wanted to!